Feminism on Trial

Mamoulides, taking a personal interest in the case, interjected himself into it for the first time when he addressed the jury. He tried to focus their attention on the charges against Ginny, not on supposedly peripheral issues like the participants' lifestyles, marital histories, and whether or not Ginny had been physically abused. Porteous followed up by trying lend credence to Jack's motives for testifying and denying that Jack was acting out of a desire for revenge. He also tried to portray Ginny as a liar who couldn't remember such an important detail as the manner in which they left New Orleans eighteen years earlier.

In his closing statement, Reed answered that question by saying Ginny didn't remember simply because it wasn't important to her. Jack could remember because it was important to him, Reed maintained. Jack was fleeing town as a murderer and consequently it was easier for him to remember how he fled. Reed also poked holes in Jack's motivations for confessing and cautioned the jury not to give credibility to someone who was an alcoholic, "a crazy person and a liar." His final words to the jury were, "I ask you as a jury to look at her and to tell Ginny that she need not be ashamed anymore; that she need not fear Jack Sidote anymore."

Konrad had the last word and he desperately tried to cast doubt on Ginny's testimony and her version of the events of 1965. He tried to portray her as the cause of the breakup between Jack and his wife and the reason he became an alcoholic. She was the one who led Jack to commit murder and she participated in the killing. He even made an issue over the fact that she had given up a baby only an hour after delivering it, not mentioning the truth that Ginny had no choice but to do so.

With the final closing argument delivered and the jury set to begin deliberations, court was recessed for lunch.